My DJ won't return any of my calls or e-mails. FREAKING OUT.

Okay, so I am getting married in about a month. Things are getting pretty close now, so I started planning meet-ups with all my wedding vendors to confirm everything and to get everything sorted out. Everything seemed as if it would be easy enough.

However, I am having no luck getting a hold of our wedding DJ. He seemed super professional and awesome when I met with him at a local bridal expo. He was more than willing to accomodate our needs for ceremony music at our outdoor wedding, and even gave us a good price because he knew we were on a budget. We booked him way back in February, and he was very responsive to phone calls then. He told me to call him the month before the wedding so we could sit down and talk about the events of the ceremony and reception.

Well, here I am, calling and calling and calling to NO RESPONSE. I leave messages and I hear nothing. It’s been two weeks of this and I am starting to positively panic. To try and get to the bottom of things, I went on his facebook page (which hasn’t been active since May) and posted a comment asking if anyone else was having problems. He was VERY quick to respond then, sending me a very brief message saying, “I’ll call you this weekend.”

I told him to call me Sunday and we could arrange a meeting. Sunday came and went and I haven’t heard anything.

I don’t know what to do. At this point, I just don’t trust him anymore. But if I try to cancel our arrangement, I don’t know if he will give me my deposit back. Then I have four weeks to find another DJ, pay them, and fill them in on all our music choices and everything. But I feel like I am not getting the services that should be rendered. I understand it’s wedding season and that he’s probably busy, but when you say you are going to call someone, CALL THEM.

I just need some advice, comfort, etc. How do you deal with a wedding vendor who you can’t get a hold of? 🙁

Yikes! At least he responded to your Facebook post, so you know where to find him! I’d call around other DJ’s and see if you can get a back-up. That way you know if you can burn this bridge or not.

IF you find a back-up, post to his page something like “Hi, I have been trying to contact you for weeks, and unfortunately havent heard from you since I signed my contract with you, except for an unfulfilled promise on facebook to call me last weekend. As such, I would like to cancel my contract and expect to recieve a full refund as I am unable to trust the reliability of your services.”

IF you don’t find a backup I would post something like “Hi, You were supposed to call on Sunday to set up a meeting but I didnt hear from you, can you please phone me tonight for my wedding on XXX date. If you are unable to fulfill your end of our contract, please let me know as soon as possible so I can look for another DJ, as my wedding is in less than a month. Thank you for your attention to this matter”

Sorry you’e dealing with that, maybe he’s relaible, but something major came up… who knows! Good Luck!

Charliejeorge: I’d call around other DJ’s and see if you can get a back-up. That way you know if you can burn this bridge or not.<br /><br />

The only problem is that I don’t know if I even want the bridge anymore to begin with. After trying all his phones and only getting answering machines, I really worry that the day of the wedding will be upon us and he’ll fail to show up and not answer any calls. Then what will I do?

And if I go “bridezilla” to tell him to pay attention to me, I worry that he’s going to give me sub-par service because I was a pain in the butt to him.

soupydoopy: I would find another DJ ASAP and do what PP said to do on Facebook. I realize it seems really informal, but that’s the only way you’ve been able to get ahold of him thus far.

This happened to me with my photobooth, but I was sort of a crazy bride and started trying to get in touch with them about 5 months before the wedding, so I had a little more time. When I booked them, it was the same with your DJ: very quick to respond, great pricing for us, seemed like a great deal, family owned local business, etc. With my wedding in May, I started to contact the guy who owned the place in January, which I realize is a little crazy but I just wanted to open up contact because I had booked him the previous March, so almost a year before. I called and left messages, emailed, filled out contact forms through the website, the whole thing. My sister-in-law lived in the same city as him, and even went to his house to try to talk to him, and they didn’t answer the door. She left a note to call me, nothing. I sent a certified letter to his house to cancel the services and request my deposit back. They refused to pick it up from the post office, so it was sent back to me. At this point I am freaking out.

I got another photobooth vendor, and paid a pretty penny for it too. I also never got my deposit back because to this day I have never heard from the original guy and the email he had used is now deleted. At the end of the day though, I figured that if that was the worst thing that happened we were still in good shape, and under budget.

Just make sure you look over your original contract to make sure this DJ can’t come back and demand to keep your deposit and/or demand you pay the remaining balance before the wedding. Some contracts say you can only get your deposit back if you cancel X amount of days before the wedding, even though you obviously have good reason to cancel. I was nervous the original photobooth company would come after me right before the wedding and say-we’re coming, you owe us your balance-but they didn’t. So just double check your contract, but definitely start looking for a new DJ.

If you know where his place of business is, I would drop by on my lunch hour but that’s just me. I’d sit at the office. LOL. You might have ticked him off with the post on his FB page. Keep calling. Look over your contract.

soupydoopy: I totally understand not wanting that bridge anymore, BUT what if you CANT find a new DJ? He might be great, just super busy with crazy wedding season… who knows! But if you know you have another DJ who will be available, then you can absolutely burn that bridge. i just wouldnt do it without having a back-up plan first.

After the message about him having an apparent break-in, he said he would call me within the next few days to get everything set-up. A few days passed, and he didn’t call. Then, he sent me a follow-up facebook message saying, “When is a good time to call you tomorrow?” I told him during my lunch break would be ideal.

Again, no phone call. I tried calling him that evening to more of the same–rings through, generic voicemail message.

At this point, I am ready to cancel our contract and get my money back from him. But now I have ANOTHER problem–my fiance.

He seems to think that my reaction to all of this is me being a bridezilla. He seems baffled as to why we would cancel our services with the DJ when we’ve already given him money. I’m really upset and confused as to why my fiance would take the DJ’s side on this whole thing. He’s looking at me like I’m being totally irrational here. But I feel justified–if I can’t trust my DJ to call when he says he is going to, how can I trust him to actually show up on the day of the wedding?

I’m feeling terrible about the whole situatuon. I’m about ready to just pass off dealing with the DJ to my FH. Then he’ll see how wonderful it is. :\